Lawnswood Gardens
a portrait of Zygmunt Bauman | 52 min. HD“The world’s most extraordinary and significant
and famous sociologist”
– Griselda Pollock
“...his analysis of the Holocaust shows
that it was not an accident of the modern world”
– Vaclav Havel
“…he suddenly lights up this darkness
with the notion of human solidarity…”
– Miroslaw Balka
In its main part the film documents a four day long spring 2010 visit to 1 Lawnswood Gardens (Leeds, UK) the home of Zygmunt Bauman, the world-renowned sociologist, philosopher and scholar.
The visitors, remaining mostly off screen, are prof. Anna Zeidler-Janiszewska and Paweł Kuczynski. The visit yields a warm material dealing both with profound and mundane issues discussed in a casual, yet engaging manner. This part offers a rare chance for an informal meeting with the famed critic and challenger of “liquid modernity”.
Through testimonials, analysis and recreations, the film explores links between Bauman’s groundbreaking “Modernity and the Holocaust” and “Winter in the morning”, a Warsaw Ghetto memoir by the Professor’s wife Janina Bauman, who passed away in December 2009.
Modern dangers are further dealt with through the Bauman’s involvement/response to Mirosław Bałka’s 2009/2010 installation “How it is” at Turbine Hall/Tate Modern.
The film also features the Professor’s friends from Leeds: Anthony Bryant and Griselda Pollock, as well as from Poland: Aleksandra Jasińska-Kania, Nina Kraśko, Jerzy Wiatr and from the Czech Republic: Miloslav Petrusek and Vaclav Havel.
producer/director/editor – Paweł Kuczyński
writers – Paweł Kuczyński/Anna Zeidler-Janiszewska
co-producers – Andrzej Chrzanowski/Anna Zeidler-Janiszewska
camera – Paweł Kuczyński/Piotr Rejmer
music – Robert Jurjendal
post production supervisor/on line editor – Piotr Rejmer
sound editors – Piotr Rejmer/Michał Dominowski
artistic consultant – Lydia Bauman
editing consultant – Agnieszka Bojanowska
production consultant – Ewa Jastrzębska
recreations from “Winter in the Morning” by Janina Bauman:
cast – Nina Chrzanowska, Ludwik Przyrowski,
Robert Waćkowski, Wiesława Łukasik, Rafał Stryjewski
camera – Andrzej Belina-Brzozowski
make up – Zosia Andrusiak
costiume consultant – Katarzyna Lewińska
Produced with the financial support from:
Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Paweł Potoroczyn
National Culture Center
Krzysztof Dudek
Autor’s Society ZAiKS
Janusz Fogler
trailer – here
“making off” 1 – here
“making off” 2 – here
Festivals/screenings/broadcasts:
Planete + (2012/13)
Florida Atlantic University
Polish Sociological Association (Warsaw University)
Festival de Cinema Judaico de San Paulo
It’s All True, Brasil
Jewish Motifs, Poland
plus its 16 cities Travelling Festival
Filmic Philosophy, Olsztyn, Poland
See blog for production notes.
a Delos Films production
From “Lawnswood Gardens”
